Clarity
by crazy about twilight
Summary: Fang surprises Max by taking her to see the lunar eclipse, something she's never seen before. One-shot / Fax.


This is just some little one-shot I thought of. It's true that on February 20th, 2008 (which was two nights ago, at the moment, for me) there was a lunar eclipse. And it inspired me to write this. (:

Oh, and I'm sorry if it's out of character or anything like that; it's my first Maximum Ride fanfic, so if it's not too good, I blame my inexperience. xD

Disclaimer: All rightful characters, events, and places are owned by James Patterson.

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"Good night, Max," Angel's sweet voice whispered to me from her bed. Her small hands pulled up the covers and she rolled onto one side, ready to sleep. Nudge was already sacked out in the bed next to her.

"Good night, sweetheart. Good night, Nudge," I replied, turning off their bedroom light. I walked down the hallway and into my room.

As usual, Angel and Nudge had been the last of my flock to tuck in; they came after everyone else. Well, I take that back – I never tucked in Fang or Iggy. If I did, I'd probably get slapped. Or verbally harassed. Or even worse – one of _them_ would tuck _me_ in. The thought of Iggy pulling my covers around me made me shudder.

I looked at the clock on my nightstand; the bright red numbers read 8:46. Not feeling tired at all, I sighed and grabbed a book before falling carelessly onto my bed. I probably wouldn't get much sleep tonight, and with school tomorrow, no sleep meant dead by lunchtime. At the moment, tomorrow's outlook on my attentiveness in school seemed pretty grim.

I was finishing the first chapter of my chosen bedtime story fairytale – ha, that's a good one – when the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Startled, I looked up to see Fang's dark appearance in my doorway.

"Sheesh, Fang, you sure know how to give someone a heart attack!" I whisper-yelled at him. The corners of his mouth twitched as he sat down on the edge of my bed.

"Yep," he replied.

Glad to see he was still a man of many words. "So… what's up?"

He shrugged. "Nothing. Just wanted to see if you were busy."

I looked at him curiously. He seemed distant – almost _too_ distant, I would say. Something was up. "Oh, yes, well, Romeo and Juliet have been keeping me extremely occupied." I held up the cover of my book for him to see. "There's just something about true love that makes my insides feel all mushy, gushy, and warm." I put a hand over my heart and sighed.

Outwardly, I was trying to make a joke about the story of Romeo and Juliet; but to be honest, I found the story pretty intriguing. Star-crossed lovers, meant to be together, love at first sight, but torn apart by fate…

Oh, alright, fine. The story was a bit lovey-dovey… like, _really_ lovey-dovey. But I still enjoyed reading it.

Fang just stared at me with an unfathomable expression in his eyes.

"Maybe I should alert you the next time I use sarcasm, eh?" I muttered, knowing full well that he could hear me.

What was with him tonight? Surely, he didn't see through my disguise, did he? Fang and I were very good at reading each other, but I sure as _h_ hoped he didn't see right through me and my lies. If the rest of the flock found out about my love for the book Romeo and Juliet, it wouldn't be good. I might as well just lay my head on a chopping block and hand them an axe. Max? Reading a romance novel? No freaking way.

"Fang? Earth to Fang?" I waved my hand in front of his still face. "Anybody home?"

One corner of his mouth pulled up into a half-smile and his dark eyes gleamed. In Fang language, that translated to, I'm really excited right now.

"Do you know what today is?" he asked me in his naturally deep, husky voice.

I thought for a moment. "Err, no… well, it's February 20th?" I stated like a question.

Fang nodded but didn't say anything. As usual.

Okay, then, that did me a fat lot of good. Now I really had no idea what he was excited about. As far as I knew, this date held nothing special. He watched me carefully as my eyebrows furrowed, trying to place the event. No holiday, as far as I knew… oh, crap! Was it Fang's birthday? Oh man, if I missed his birthday…

Mentally, I slapped myself out of my momentary stupidity. Fang didn't have an official birthday, as far as we knew. Or, if he did, none of us knew what it was…

Suddenly, Fang grabbed my hand and pulled me off my bed. I refrained from squealing like a confused girl and tossed my book onto my pillow before being practically dragged out the doorway. We slipped silently past Angel and Nudge's room, then Gasman and Iggy's, then Ella and Dr. Martinez's – or Mom, as I now liked to call her – and finally past Jeb's door.

Fang, still tugging on my hand, tossed me my windbreaker before letting me go and walking out the door. I slipped it on, still curious as to what the _h_ he was doing, and followed him out to the yard. I noticed he already had his jacket on.

"Fang? Ever planning on actually telling me what you're doing?"

He just looked at me, his dark eyes smoldering with excitement. "Follow me."

So I did. Up into the sky we went, our wings creating deafening _whoosh_ sounds in our ears, the stinging wind glazing our eyes. I glanced at him a couple times, but he just stared straight ahead. Actually, he was staring at the moon. I followed his gaze. The moon was perfectly circular and bright white and clear. Of course, we were above the clouds, so there couldn't be anything obstructing our view of it… but that's beside the point.

Without any notice, Fang suddenly curved to the left, as did I. Our arc led us to a wide hillside, completely void of houses, people, or anything. Fang landed and tucked in his wings, taking a seat on the soft grass. Again, I did the same thing as he did – that seemed to be happening a lot tonight.

I sat down right next to him and mimicked his posture. His legs were bent up, and he leaned forward onto them, hanging his elbows loosely around his kneecaps.

"So… any specific reason for kidnapping me out of my extremely warm and comfortable bed?" I asked casually.

Fang looked at me, a wide grin taking place of his usual smirk. And didn't say anything. _Major, major sigh_. Then, he just looked back at the moon.

I sighed and placed my attention on the white orb as well. After half an hour, I began growing bored. Fang, of course, was completely enthralled with the circle of light. But, just as I turned to Fang to ask why in the world we were staring at the moon for so long, he placed one finger to his lips and pointed his other hand to the moon.

Reluctantly, I said nothing and looked back to the sky. To my surprise, the lower left-hand corner of the moon as gone and had been replaced by a straight edge. Just a couple minutes ago, it had been totally full.

I stared back at Fang, my mouth hanging open. My face must have looked really confused because he was looking back at me, a small smile on his face. Before I got to ask my question, he answered.

"It's called a lunar eclipse," he said softly. "It happens only a couple times a year. It's when the Earth comes directly between the sun and the moon." He looked at the moon, and then back at me. "You know how the moon is lit up by the sun?"

I nodded wordlessly, my jaw still hanging loose.

"Well, whenever the sun is right behind the Earth, then the moon doesn't receive any of its light. During a lunar eclipse, the moon starts full, then slowly grows smaller and smaller, as the sun moves farther and farther behind the world. Then, the sun appears on the other side, and the moon becomes bright again." He looked at me, his eyes dancing.

I finally found my voice. "In all of our flights, through all of my fourteen years, with all of our time in the sky – I have never seen, or even knew there was, a lunar eclipse."

I tore my eyes away from Fang's face and looked at the moon, which was now one-third of the way dark. I watched, my jaw hanging slightly open, as the darkness – very, very slowly – encompassed one full half of the orb. Now, only half of it was shining.

I looked back at Fang, expecting him to be staring at the moon as well; I was surprised to find he was staring at me intently. Since only half of the moon's light was showing, his face had grown darker. Now, I could barely make out his features.

"I knew you had never seen a lunar eclipse before. I thought you might've liked to." I could barely see a faint blush creep onto Fang's face. Still gazing at me, he lied onto his back and let his legs fall flat. He wove his fingers together behind his head. Never once did his eyes leave my face. I stared right back, laying down as well, and folding my hands across my stomach.

His kindness, no matter how great or small, always somehow managed to stun me to silence – a feat difficult for any of the flock members. And now, Fang had gone out of his way to find out what time the eclipse would take place, fly me to an unknown hill, and show it to me, knowing full well how tired he would be tomorrow. It was almost too surreal.

We looked at each other for what seemed like ages. His face grew increasingly darker with each passing minute. I felt oddly peaceful and reflective laying with Fang, the lunar eclipse winking down on us.

Now, the moon was completely black, and I couldn't see any of him. I couldn't see any of _anything_. I just continued to stare where Fang's face was supposed to be, waiting for the moment when I would see it again.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, a sliver of the moon's light began to shine again. It cast shadows across Fang's face, which I was now able to see with gaining clarity. I took this time to look at him – truly look at him.

His face was extremely mature-looking for his age of only fourteen. His long lashes made like, like a shield for his eyes, which created a mysterious air about him. His somewhat thin lips and small nose made his cheekbones look even more high and prominent. And, of course, his eyes; his eyes were amazingly hard to forget. They were so deep and dark, sometimes I felt like I could actually see what he was thinking. I wish. Unfortunately, all of his thoughts and secrets were still hidden to me. Still, I could always see what he was feeling. Well, _almost_ always. The one exception to that was just a couple hours ago, when he'd been sitting on my bed.

Of course, that snapped me back to reality, and I realized that I had just been ogling at Fang for God knows how long. And he was still staring at me – quite fixedly, might I add.

I took a quick glance at the moon to find that it was now half full again; the eclipse was almost over. Meaning my alone time with Fang was almost up. Immediately, I became sad. At the moment, I wasn't sure what we were to each other. We had kissed twice, but we hadn't spoken of those instances since. I didn't want to ask him and threaten our friendship, but I knew that I definitely liked him as more than a flock member, as more than a friend. I had better, _stronger_ feelings for him that I really didn't understand.

With a stroke of confidence, I scooted my body over and, very gingerly, placed my head on his upper-chest. I paused and held my breath, cursing silently when I realized what I'd just done. Fang probably thought I was crazy by now; with my luck, he was dialing the loony-bin on his cell phone.

Whenever he didn't respond to my actions, I understood that he probably only thought of me as a friend, and nothing more.

Fantastic.

So, you could imagine my surprise when I felt his warm, rough hand softly petting my hair. Every now and then, his fingers would barely graze my cheek, causing strange shivers to rush through me each time.

I tilted my head upward and to the side, so I could see the underside of his chin.

"Thank you," I barely whispered. But I knew he could hear me. "For showing me."

I saw him angle his head to the side and look down at me; his dark eyes were so blazing, I almost gasped out loud. I'd never seen them filled with so much emotion.

"Anytime, anywhere" he said. His voice sounded rough and thick.

I smiled at him, and then looked back at the moon. Right now, the lunar eclipse seemed, hilariously, like an exact copy of Fang's and my relationship. Our friendship was full and shining, startlingly bright in comparison with the other stars. Then, when he left the flock with Gassy and Iggy, I was encompassed in darkness; it was like I couldn't see anything clearly, and I'm sure people couldn't see me clearly, either. And now, here we were, our relationship growing more brilliant and vivid than ever before.

I smiled to myself and pressed my nose to Fang's shirt, inhaling his scent. "No more eclipses for us," I whispered into the fabric, so quietly I could barely hear myself.

"No more eclipses for us, ever," I heard Fang whisper back. I grinned.

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Did you like it? Was it good? Good enough to review? –wink wink– If you want, leave a review and let me know your thoughts. (: Thanks for reading!


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